Unbridled Talent

German Fernandez is struggling to keep pace. It's an unusual position for the 22-year-old, who dominated at Riverbank High School in northern California and then posted workout times at Oklahoma State that his former coach, Dave Smith, thinks will never be broken.

But this isn't high school or college -- it's the Nike campus in Beaverton, Ore., where, at 10 a.m. on this weekday morning in October, the fitness center is packed with employees decked out in Swoosh apparel. Music is blasting from a Spin class, the weight room is crowded and the machines full. It's as if everyone is training for the Olympics, and yet the only real pros are in the upstairs yoga room where Oregon Track Club strength coach, Pascal Dobert, leads Fernandez and his new teammates, Chris Solinsky, Evan Jager, Tim Nelson, Simon Bairu and Brent Vaughn, through an hour's worth of pre-rehab exercises.

Some of the routines look elementary. There's one where they stretch a pink elastic band around their ankles and walk around like pigeons. Another requires them to wrap the pink band around their wrists and lift their arms like football referees signaling a touchdown. The core-activating, hip-stabilizing motions are part of the new wave of elite training that emphasizes injury prevention routines as much as workouts and mileage.

In his current state, Fernandez is no slouch. In September 2012, he ran a PR of 3:34.60 for the 1500m. However, even at his level, he has to acclimate to the heightened intensity. "In an ideal world, I'd have German on his own for a few months," Dobert says later. For now, Fernandez follows the lead of his teammates. He started drinking coffee because they do. He changes into a fresh pair of shorts and T-shirt between his run and core session because they do. He plays video games all day because that's what they do. ("You've got nothing better to do while you recover for the next run," he shrugs.)

After the workout concludes, as the group puts away its rubber balls and dumbbells, Fernandez rolls out his tight shoulders. "Man, that was a long core session," he says to no one in particular.

While Fernandez, a lean 6-foot-1-inch, is still catching up in the strength department, he has passed the personality test. "What I'm most happy about is that he's eager and enthusiastic," says Dobert, who was a 2000 Olympian in the steeplechase. "After an 80-minute run at 5:30 pace, last thing any of these guys might want to do is spend an hour doing strength work. German is super-pumped to do it, which isn't the case with a lot of new athletes."

A WELCOME CHANGE

Fernandez welcomes the change of scenery in Portland and acknowledges that those teammates who are currently beating him will only make him better. "I know I've made the right decision to train with Jerry," he says of the OTC's leader, Coach Schumacher. "Every guy here has a story about how well they've done." The surrounding talent will take some of the outside pressure off of Fernandez, who has been intensely scrutinized and analyzed over the past five years. He's been saddled with injuries that have kept him from fulfilling his vast potential. The move to Portland and the Nike sponsorship offer Fernandez a chance to reboot and start anew. He's been in town since October and has spent most of that time shuttling between Jager's downtown apartment, where he crashes on the couch, and the Nike campus. Fernandez is storing his car in Solinsky's driveway until he finds a place of his own -- hopefully a house with Jager. For now, he relies on his teammates for rides.

Fernandez never expected to live in Oregon, but then he never envisioned becoming a runner either. Growing up in northern California, he competed in a variety of sports. He was particularly fond of football and played cornerback. He recalls making 14 interceptions during one 12-game season in middle school. His liability, however, was his fear of being tackled. (Immediately after each pick, he would fall to the ground.) Fernandez also participated in soccer and basketball, but gave them up after he ran a 4:22.95 mile as a high school freshman.

As a senior, he popped a 4:00.29 (1600m)/8:34.23 (3200m) double at the 2008 California state track and field meet, besting Ryan Hall's 1600m meet record in the process. After the double -- one of the most amazing performances ever by a high school track athlete -- he worked his regular weekend host shift at Applebee's that night. Less than one month later at the Nike Outdoor Nationals 2-mile race, Fernandez surpassed Galen Rupp's high school 3K record by splitting 7:59.82 en route to an 8:34.40. (The records have since been broken by Lukas Verzbicas.)

"I told him that if he worked hard, he would get a good harvest," says his dad, Armando, stressing, "He worked really hard." Fernandez credits his father and his mother, Hortencia, with instilling that value in him. Though Hortencia was born in the U.S., she grew up in Mexico, as did Armando. The two moved to California more than 20 years ago. Initially, they found jobs as seasonal field laborers at a migrant camp near Riverbank before moving on to tomato canneries, their current workplaces. For a time, Fernandez couldn't tell how much his dad -- who tried his best to align his days off with his oldest son's races -- understood about his running. Then one day Fernandez discovered his dad had been saving all of his newspaper and magazine clips. "He has pretty much made a scrapbook of my career," says Fernandez.

Fernandez's swift high school times attracted Nike, who tried to sign him as a professional. Fernandez, then 17, wasn't ready. "I wanted to get a college education where, in four years, I'd only be 21, and have plenty of time left to run and not be in debt or paying tuition out of my own pocket," he says. A California guy who loved the ideal climate and In-N-Out, he made an unexpected move and bypassed the state schools to move to Stillwater, Okla., and train under Coach Smith. "The scholarship was a tremendous honor," says Armando. "With that, I didn't have to worry about his education." All Armando asked Coach Smith was that he make sure his son earned his degree.

Injuries kept Fernandez from running his best in cross country, but he still helped his team to two national titles, putting Oklahoma State on the map as a distance force.

FROM PRODIGY TO PROFESSIONAL

In high school Fernandez broke many records set by Ryan Hall and Galen Rupp, including the 3,000m national record as a senior in 2008.

During Fernandez's first cross country season at OSU, he posted a 23:35 8K best at the 2008 Pre-Nationals Invitational and then went on to win the Big 12 individual title. At NCAA nationals that year, he was in position for a top-five finish when he dropped out just before 8K with a freak Achilles injury. The recovery plan dictated that Fernandez take two to four weeks off from running. He did, and then eased back into training. His natural ability is so unworldly that he began hitting 60-second quarters in workouts one month later.

During his freshman indoor season, just a few months after his season-ending injury, Fernandez set the NCAA and world junior indoor mile records in 3:55.02. He then sprinted to a 3:39.00 victory in the NCAA outdoor 1500m final in June. At the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships a few weeks later, he ran 13:25.45 to set a new American junior record and finish less than 5 seconds behind Solinsky, Jager and Matt Tegenkapm. Mixing it up with the top pros transformed him from a rookie to a celebrity. "We would go to meets and people he was about to race were asking for his autograph," recalls Smith. "I think it made him uncomfortable that people fawned over him at times."

The achievements brought new career opportunities for athlete and coach. Nike, New Balance and Brooks courted Fernandez, while Smith received offers from the University of Wisconsin and the University of Arkansas. Smith asked Fernandez his plans. Fernandez, who describes Smith as a "father figure," said he wanted to see if they could win cross country nationals. "We made the decision and it wasn't a perfect road," Fernandez says of staying at OSU. "But then we won two cross country national championships and were runner-up in 2011."

The health roller coaster continued during Fernandez's sophomore year. He started thinking about the London Olympics, then still three years away, and ratcheted up his miles. He had hit 60–70 his senior year of high school, then bumped it up to 80 and 90 early into college. "I figured the more miles I did, the faster I would get," he says. "But the more miles I did, the more broken I became."

Then one of his teammates showed him a YouTube video about how meat was processed. "It messed with my head," says Fernandez. "I started eating less and less meat and I think that hurt my running." For six months he felt tired and grumpy and thought he was out of shape. Finally, a blood test revealed his ferritin count had bottomed out at 11 (healthy levels are between 18 and 270). To combat the anemia, Fernandez began taking iron supplements and was able to run 7:51.06 for the 3K indoors. The 3K time is akin to a financier saying he had an off year and only made $200,000. It again showed that even when Fernandez wasn't 100 percent, he was still better than just about every one of his peers.

He couldn't stay healthy for long. Fernandez's aggressive mileage hike caught up with him that winter and caused his Achilles tendon to flare up. Despite the inflammation, Fernandez kept training on it for four months. Looking back, he admits that was "not a good idea at all," as the repetition made it worse and he scrapped his outdoor campaign. He battled tendon pain his final two seasons and spent a large portion of them cross-training on the stationary bike for as much as 90 minutes a day. Though he helped put Oklahoma State on the map as a distance-running powerhouse, he never again won an individual NCAA title.

As the frustration over the lingering Achilles injury set in, Fernandez contemplated quitting running. "There were times when I went to Coach Smith's office thinking I had forgotten how to race," he says. "I didn't know what I was doing wrong. He didn't know either." In April 2012, they decreased Fernandez's mileage from 90 miles per week to 75–80 and he stayed healthy there.

"I never thought the injuries would hamper him in the long run," says Smith. The emotional stress, though, weighed on Fernandez. "Every time he stepped on the track, someone said how much he sucked or that he's not living up to his expectations. That was really hard for a 17-, 18-, 19-year-old kid. When I was his age, I don't think I could have taken the scrutiny he has been under the past four years."

In hindsight, the injuries in college might have been a painful but helpful learning experience. Fernandez encountered them in a relatively safe space where, even if he missed a season, his scholarship was never in jeopardy and he never faced any monetary reductions that he might have on a professional shoe contract. It was a four-year evolution that seasoned him from prodigy to young professional. "I think college gave me the maturity that I wouldn't have gotten right away if I had turned professional," says Fernandez.

MOVING FORWARD

Last May, Fernandez graduated from college (the first person in his family to do so; he has a brother in high school and sister in elementary school), decided to forgo his remaining outdoor season of eligibility and joined Nike's Oregon Track Club. That decision played out perfectly in Smith's mind. He has known Schumacher for 20 years and has shared all of Fernandez's important workouts with Schumacher in weekly phone calls.

"He's now running with guys who have gone under 13 minutes for 5K and under 27:30 for 10K," says Schumacher. "It's not the easiest place to be when you're a young guy coming out, but he wouldn't have been invited to the group if we didn't feel he had the ability to do those things." Schumacher wants him to adapt to a "higher stress level of race performance" and will do that by patiently increasing his "threshold." That means he's going to watch Fernandez carefully to ensure he doesn't overdo it in training. "Maybe his heart and lungs can handle a higher level of work, but that doesn't mean his muscles can," acknowledges Schumacher.

"German has been a great addition to the group," says Solinsky. "He is very easygoing, but knows how to bring it when it is time to concentrate and do work."

No one, least of all Fernandez, knows what will ultimately be his best event. He sees himself as a miler in the near future and talks about returning to the 5K (Schumacher agrees), but one day it could be the marathon. According to Smith, his former runner, 2:12 marathoner Ryan Vail, couldn't come close to what Fernandez did on long aerobic runs at OSU. "German loves to push his limits," notes Smith. "I think he has gone through the storm, weathered it, and has found a way to get himself back to loving competing."

To stay healthy, Fernandez will keep his volume relatively low and continue with core work three to four times per week. He will see the OTC's physical therapist twice a week for massage and active release therapy. He's vowed to clean up his diet, though he isn't averse to a Guinness once in a while. "It's rich in iron," he explains. "I'll have one and I fall asleep right away."

To fill his free time when he's not training or playing video games, Fernandez reads. Right now it's The Power of Positive Thinking. "It has opened my eyes to believe in something, to be confident and have faith that everything is going to happen for a reason," he says. He sees passages that have a direct correlation to his running, like how to remain calm when training isn't going well or a nagging injury pops up. "Over the years, being patient is the one thing I've learned I have to apply to running," he stresses. "As easy as that sounds, being patient is very hard. It's going to come, but it is not going to come quickly."

Consistency Rules

Fernandez, on doing more miles, at a more consistent rate, than ever before."My first month in Portland was really difficult," admits Fernandez. "I didn't tell anyone, but almost every run felt like I was racing." Since then he has quickly settled into the most productive base training period of his life. "In college I was doing mileage in the 80s for three weeks and then I'd have a down week," says Fernandez. "Now I am doing 85-90 miles per week for 10 weeks." Here are five things he has done to step up his training.

Rest like you're dead"Getting my rest in between runs is the number one factor in me being able to run more," says Fernandez. He runs at 9 a.m. and then again at 4 p.m. With the exception of core work, he spends the time in between with his legs up.

Recover by feel"Our second run is done by feel," Fernandez says of the day's easier effort. "I don't have to worry about the pace; I can just follow the group."

A little concrete won't kill youThe OTC does its morning run at the Nike Campus, and then Fernandez normally conducts his afternoon run around the streets of downtown Portland. "At first I was worried about concrete, but so far I've adapted well," he says. "It shows that our strength routine has allowed me to adapt to any surface."

Back off, if needed"If the front group is going too hard, then sometimes I have to check off," he says of letting his legs recover before the next hard workout.

Schedule cut-back weeksAfter Fernandez hit his 10th week of high-mileage training, he purposely dropped down to 70 miles for the next seven days. "We wanted to do that to reset my legs before we started another hard training block," he says.

Fernandez's Roller Coaster

2008

JUNE - Wins the CIF California State Meet 1600m in 4:00.29 and 3200m in 8:34.23 within a three-hour window; three weeks later sets the then national 2-mile record of 8:34.40

NOVEMBER - Drops out of the NCAA cross country championships in the final mile with an Achilles tendon injury

2009

FEBRUARY - Sets the world indoor junior mile record of 3:55.02

JUNE - Wins the NCAA outdoor 1500m in 3:39.00

NOVEMBER - Runs injured at the NCAA cross country championships; his 77th-place finish contributes to the national title for the Cowboys

2010

JANUARY - Stops eating meat and becomes anemic

FEBRUARY - Still manages to run a 7:51.06 3K

OUTDOORS - Does not compete due to an Achilles injury

NOVEMBER - Helps the Cowboys win their second NCAA cross country championship; places eighth individually

2011

JANUARY - Achilles injury returns

MARCH - Musters a 4:03.13 mile indoors

MAY - Posts a season best of 3:44.18 in the 1500m outdoors

NOVEMBER - Places 11th individually at the NCAA cross country championships; the Cowboys take second place overall

2013

INDOORS - Runs a limited season of two races; does not compete in the NCAA championships

JUNE - Finishes in 10th place at the NCAA outdoor championships 1500m; gives up final season of eligibility and signs with Nike

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